A pandemic is the rapid spread of a new human influenza around the world. Influenza pandemics happen when a new strain of a flu virus appears which can infect humans, to which most people have no immunity and which can transmit efficiently from human to human.
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Influenza viruses that commonly circulate in swine are called “swine influenza viruses” or “swine flu viruses.” Like human influenza viruses, there are different subtypes and strains of swine influenza viruses.
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a relatively new and rare neurological disease, classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE).
The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a new beta virus strain of an animal coronavirus that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in September 2012. This novel coronavirus differs from the previously identified coronaviruses such as the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which caused the 2003 SARS outbreaks.
Avian influenza is an infectious viral disease mainly found in birds, but under certain circumstances infections can also occur in humans even though the risk is generally very low.
Tularaemia is a zoonosis (infection that could transmit from animals to humans), caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis, capable of surviving for weeks at low temperatures in water, moist soil, hay, straw or animal carcasses.
Besides Yersinia pestis (see plague) the Yersinia group of bacteria also includes two species frequently causing illness (mainly enteritis) in humans; Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis.